Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The Bahamas?????

* First, I thank Josh Mandel for his service in the military. I just don't think he is equipped to be Ohio's U.S. Senator.

Republican Josh Mandel, the Ohio Treasurer who appears to be spending less and less time at his day job, was touring Ohio today with another like minded individual----Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. Rubio voted against the auto bailout that saved the American auto industry. Josh Mandel has stated that he was against the auto bailout and if he had been in the Senate at the time, he would have voted against it. Obviously, Mandel doesn't know much about the economics of Ohio because hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state rely on a functioning, successful, American auto industry. It could be that Mandel just doesn't care.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, already criticized by Democrats for missing official state meetings, flew to the Bahamas last Friday to give a speech to the payday lending industry, The Plain Dealer has confirmed.

Mandel held a fund-raiser for his U.S. Senate election campaign while at the Bahamas resort....

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I don't see how kissing the feet of payday lenders for political contributions demonstrates a candidates commitment to creating jobs for Ohioans. This industry, unfortunately, is not one that has demonstrated any compassion for the poor.

Josh Mandel's "issues" pages appear to be re-writes of the same old talking points repeated by every other Republican candidate for the last forty years. His page on jobs is the same old same old:

Josh Mandel believes that creating a business-friendly, pro-growth environment to foster job creation in Ohio and America is the highest priority of his campaign. He strongly believes that common sense tax reforms, the repeal of government-run healthcare and the elimination of over burdensome agency regulations on small businesses are crucial to the recovery of our state and national economies.

There is no mention of rebuilding the country's bridges, highways, or fixing crumbling schools, that would create millions of jobs. Mandel just wants to make it easier for his business buddies to pollute our environment, increase mercury in our water, overwork employees, create unsafe working conditions, and increase profits for business. How is that an agenda for creating jobs? How does this make our lives better?

Josh Mandel should -----
1.) spend more time and energy working on his job as Ohio Treasurer.
2.) attend meetings to demonstrate his responsibility, concern, and efforts.
3.) stop these ridiculous trips to Hawaii, Utah, Texas, Florida, New York, Kentucky, and a foreign country to get campaign funds. He looks foolish.
4) do his job as Ohio Treasurer, earn his paycheck, and spend less time hanging out with rich Republicans at country clubs.

I would never vote for Josh Mandel. He appears to be completely uninformed about the lives of the people in our state. His constituency seems to be the payday lenders that he was so anxious to meet.

I will be supporting Sen. Sherrod Brown with my vote. Sen. Sherrod Brown cares about everyone in our state. Here is a small excerpt from Sen. Sherrod Brown's bio from his Senate page:

Since January of 2007, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown – a champion of middle class families in the Senate – has held more than 170 community roundtables across Ohio’s 88 counties with local leaders and business owners, entrepreneurs and educators, and workers and families to find ways to rebuild our economy.

Recently described as “Congress’ leading proponent of American manufacturing,” Brown is working with the Obama Administration on the creation of a national manufacturing policy that would invest in manufacturing innovation, strengthen our component supply chain, connect workers with emerging industries, and align our trade policies to promote our national interests......